General Information

Fluted gourd is a perennial climbing plant producing vigorous herbaceous stems that can be 15 metres or more long, these scramble over the ground, clambering into other plants where they support themselves by means of tendrils[

An excellent on-line database with detailed information on over 3,200 species of useful plants of Africa.

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The plant is a very popular food crop in west Africa, also providing medicines, oil and fibre. It is commonly grown commercially for its seed and young shoots in western Africa, though it is seldom seen elsewhere in the Tropics[

An excellent on-line database with detailed information on over 3,200 species of useful plants of Africa.

].
The plant can be managed as a short-term perennial when grown on well-drained soils, slightly shaded and well mulched. On soggy soils and in sunlit spots it can only be grown as an annual.
Female plants are usually grown for their edible young shoots since males do not produce many of these[

An excellent on-line database with detailed information on over 3,200 species of useful plants of Africa.

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Female plants produce about 18 single flowers which set fruit, but only 1 - 4 develop into mature fruits.
Out of the female plants of a population, only 35% bear fruits. A large variation occurs between and within plants in the number of seeds per fruit, from 6 seeds per fruit up to 196, with an average of 62 seeds. The seeds are also unequal in size, varying in weight from 1 - 68g[

An excellent, in-depth look at the main vegetable crops that can be grown in the Tropics, plus many less well-known plants.

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The fresh shoot yield can be as low as 500 - 1,000 kilos per hecttare, but it can also reach 3 - 10 tonnes. In home gardens in Benin, one plant occupying 3 metres of fence produced 2 kilos of young leaves per metre in the rainy season and 500g in the dry season without irrigation[

An excellent on-line database with detailed information on over 3,200 species of useful plants of Africa.

]. Identifying the female plants from either seeds or young seedlings has not been successful, but vine size 64 days after planting could be used as a sex indicator, because female plants are more vigorous than the male ones[

An excellent and very comprehensive guide but it only gives very short descriptions of the uses without any details of how to utilize the plants. Not for the casual reader.

]. The leaves are used alone or together with okra (Abelmoschus caillei and Abelmoschus esculentus), dika nut (Irvingia gabonensis), or egusi seeds (Citrullus lanatus and other species). They can also be mixed with eru (Gnetum africanum) and Pterocarpus soyauxii[

An excellent, in-depth look at the main vegetable crops that can be grown in the Tropics, plus many less well-known plants.

]. Seed size affects the vigour, germination rates and establishment of the seedlings. Viability varies from 63% for small seeds weighing less than 11g, up to 89% for seeds weighing 22g. Germination takes about 14 days in natural soil, but only 7 days in a sawdust medium. Vine length one week after emergence is on average 31cm for large seeds, whereas small size seeds grow into a corresponding vine length of 16cm Plant out container-grown plants after about 30 days[